Patrick M. Shanahan

Patrick M. Shanahan (27 July 1962-) was US Secretary of Defense from 1 January 2019, succeeding Jim Mattis.

Biography
Patrick M. Shanahan was born in Aberdeen, Washington in 1962, and he joined Boeing in 1986 and became general manager of its Boeing 757 program. Starting in 2004, he also oversaw Boeing's missile defense system projects, and he also became a member of the Boeing Executive Council. On 19 July 2017, he became Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Donald Trump, serving as an independent. On 23 December 2018, following the resignation of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, President Trump announced that Mattis' tenure would end two months earlier than expected - January 1 - and that Shanahan would succeed him.